Green Spaces Issue

Here is an abstract addressing the
issue from Green Spaces, Better Places
- final report of the Urban
Taskforce.

2.4 Serving needs

Although parks and green spaces
are popular with most people, we
are concerned that some groups
are missing out on their
benefits.

Some people never use green
spaces. Older people may feel
threatened by young people; young
people may feel censured by older
people. parents worry about the
safety of their children, and
that there is nobody 'on duty' to
keep an eye on things and stop
undesirable activities which
frighten others. Poor access may
keep people away from their local
parks because they do not feel
safe enough to journey to them by
foot. Or it may simply be that
there is no decent green space
anywhere near that offers even
the basic facilities and
standards that people want.

Some sectors of society are using
green spaces less than others:
especially people over 65, people
with disabilities, people from
black and minority ethnic
communities, women, and 12 to 19
year olds. particular deterrents
for these groups include dog mess
(all groups, especially women and
older people); poor access,
toilets, seating and other
facilities, and safety (people
with disabilities); nothing to do
(teenagers); vandalism and
graffiti (all groups, especially
older people and people with
disabilities). Concerns expressed
by children and young people in
our focus groups are summarised
in Box 7.

Policy makers and service
providers need to interpret
categories of users and usage
carefully, particularly when
assessing local needs, and target
provision to particular areas and
groups. For example, dog owners
may also be disabled people, as
well as parents of young
children; older people may be
members of ethnic minorities as
well as keen horticulturalists.

People in disadvantages areas are
also most likely to be losing out
on the benefits of good quality
parks and green spaces. The
Public Park Assessment (2001)
showed that, in the 100 most
deprived authorities, 40% of all
parks are declining, and that
figure rises to 88% for the parks
already judged poor. These areas
are suffering greater levels of
decline from an already low base,
which adds to both the reality
and perception that these
neighbourhoods are getting worse.

Public policy should not be
allowed to reinforce inequalities
in urban areas. Local authorities
and national government should
make it a priority to provide
high-quality parks and green
spaces to people in disadvantages
areas through the many
regeneration and renewal
programmes which target such
areas. They can do this by
working with local people to
develop better assessment of the
needs of people for green spaces,
carrying out audits of the
'fitness for purpose' of existing
provision and better targeting of
new provision - See Section 6.2.

Changing social needs, such as
the presence of a wide diversity
of cultures within communities
(including within black and
minority ethnic and other
communities), demand special
efforts to reach groups which
might otherwise be excluded.
Polity makers and service
providers should also appreciate
that needs, demands and
expectations will differ in
different places and should
'listen for' different
expressions of needs. These can
include demands from children and
young people for small
neighbourhood spaces to 'chill
out'; from extended families for
space to hold picnics because
their gardens are too small, and
from people with disabilities for
accessible space. professionally
defined and categorised needs
will only provide part of the
picture. Engaging with local
people to find out what they want
is the only way to complete it.
We recommend:
(R1) The Government and local
authorities working through local
strategic partnerships where
appropriate should make it a
priority to provide high quality
parks and green spaces to serve
the needs of people in
disadvantaged areas. This
objective should be at the heart
of regeneration and neighbourhood
renewal programmes which target
such areas.

Communities are not always
defined by residential location.
There are some parks - for
example, in city centres - where
the community is the 9-5
business/employees group. This
leads to different, but equally
important, issues for
consultation, involvement and
partnerships (see Section 6).

All the people of a city should
have access to good quality parks
and green spaces close to where
they live, work, and play. This
is particularly true of the
poorest in society who are
disproportionately dependant on
quality local public and green
spaces.

Further information/resources

Green Spaces, Better Places is a ODPM
publication.

The material quoted is Crown
copyright. Copies of this important
report highlights and addresses of a
whole range of important issues.

The government has now responded to
the report.
The responses are:
Living Places - Cleaner, Safer, greener,
product code 02UP00687, and a summary,
available from:www.odpm.gov.ukODPM free publications 0870 1226 236
Living Places - Powers, Rights,
Responsibilities, available from:www.defra.gov.ukDEFRA publications 08459 558000

Green Space Issues Papers

Black Environment Network ran focus
groups in Manchester and Birmingham on
the involvement of ethnic groups in the
use, the care and improvement, and
creation of green spaces. BEN identified
members of the BEN Network who are
environmentally aware, and who are
positioned to give a considered picture
of issues around green spaces within
their communities. A series of papers aim
to look at some of the issues raised. The
papers will address 3 areas of
involvement:

A. Increasing the use of green spaces
by ethnic groups
B. Involving ethnic groups in the care
and improvement of green spaces
C. Enabling ethnic groups to participate
in the creation of green spaces

Many members of our communities
are not aware of green spaces locally and
further afield. Their use of green spaces
is limited. Members of the communities
are unsure of what is available in terms
of activities. They are uncertain as to
whether what is offered may be suited to
their social and cultural needs. However
given the right opportunities, ethnic
communities would feel encouraged to
participate.

Manchester Green
Spaces Focus Group

One of the key ways forward is
consultation. There are different
scenarios for consultation, long term and
short term exercises which build up a
dialogue with ethnic groups.

Building a relationship in the long
term

Those who are locally responsible for
green spaces need to:

put consultation on the agenda of
their policies and strategies and
action plans

identify personnel who will have
the responsibility for building a
relationship with ethnic
communities written into their
job description

train relevant personnel to
acquire the awareness and skills
to work effectively with ethnic
groups

monitor progress and review
working practices

Getting started

Those responsible for green spaces
need to establish confidence within local
ethnic groups in order to engage with
them through a first consultation to kick
off the process of involving ethnic
groups in the use of green space. They
need to:

identify key organisations which
can assist and facilitate contact
with ethnic groups, e.g. Black
Environment Network, the local
Racial Equality Council

conduct meetings with the
contacts identified to explain
what the aim of the consultation
is and how the envisaged process
of engagement with ethnic groups
will result in benefits to ethnic
communities

ask for the assistance of these
contacts to identify and
encourage appropriate members of
the community to take part in a
consultation exercise

ask for the assistance of these
contacts to formulate the content
of the consultation.

respect the input of members of
the ethnic communities, some of
whom may be the development
workers or management committee
members of ethnic community
groups. If the time input is
substantial, offer to make a cash
contribution to the relevant
community groups to enable them
to bring in temporary workers to
share the workload.

Consultation

Use participatory consultation
techniques. You can:

use professional consultants
skilled in participatory
techniques to design and run the
consultations

or you can use professionals to
train identified members of the
community to use participatory
techniques and facilitate the
consultation

or identify someone within the
ethnic community, not always
possible, who has participatory
consultation skills to run the
session. For a successful example
see Green Space of the Month :
Kafel Centre. Swansea, in the
Green Spaces section of the BEN
website. The Muslim community
used an experienced member of the
community ran a consultation day,
in this case, to get ideas to
create a new green space.

If you are starting off cold, having
only established contact with a limited
number of contacts to assist you,
increase the stake of the community in
your consultation effort:

identify a venue which belongs to
an ethnic community group and pay
them for the venue and catering

get a designer and printer within
the ethnic community to print a
leaflet for you and consult with
them re the content

pay a fee to a youth group to get
their members to physically go
out and distribute them

look for and replicate successful
examples in which ethnic groups
are given an attractive reason to
come to a consultation and get
involved, e.g. Abbeyfield Park in
Sheffield was under-used by the
local ethnic groups. They
proposed a music and cultural
festival and work to involve all
the ethnic groups in the area to
take part. Months of engaging
with the park, culminating in the
festival, gave the ethnic groups
a real sense of ownership. See
Green Space of the Month :
Abbeyfield Park.Sheffield in the
Green Spaces section of the BEN
website.

Responding to the consultation

There is now nothing more important
than making some kind of positive
response quickly:

you do not need to immediately
respond to everything but you
must be seen to be responsive.
Select some things which you can
do and do them. Make sure ethnic
groups hear about what you have
done

ensure you can feedback to
everyone who took part in the
consultation. Some may be happy
to give you names and addresses.
Additionally post the feedback on
the notice boards of a range of
ethnic community organisations
local to the green space

promote what you have done and
lay down the basis for either
more consultations in the future

Follow up actions

Building a relationship is an ongoing
thing. A first consultation is a
significant breakthrough. Keep up the
momentum but work at a possible pace:

a few people may be interested
enough to form a working group
with you. As part of the
feedback, invite participants to
put themselves forward

be real. Follow up good ideas put
forward by the participants.
Address issues as you can,
involving them in solutions. If
there are things which you cannot
do, explain why.

as part of the feedback, make a
date for a visit during which you
can personally walk people around
the green space and explain what
is on offer

if you have activities which need
skills, offer taster programmes
to newcomers to these activities
as part of the feedback. For
newcomers, inroads into new
activities must be free. Very few
people will pay for something
they know nothing about. Once
they are interested there are
funding schemes such as Awards
for All, to which disadvantaged
groups can apply to fund whole
programmes of activities.

make friendly visits to the new
contacts you have made. Continue
the conversation to give further
information about your green
space and the activities and
opportunities available. Set the
agenda for further involvement
and take action together

Going into the future with
confidence

Sometimes it is a tall order to expect
immediate confidence from staff new to
the area of work that is involving ethnic
groups. Ensure that:

training is not just one off and
that developmental support is
available. organisation support
is in place.

commitment of adequate resources
in terms of personnel time,
volunteers and cash.

as a learning organisation you
monitor, make time review
progress and attend to the
development of this area of work

give prestige and status to this
work. Give space to it in your
Annual Report. Be proud of your
achievements. Flaunt them ! Let
everyone know.

As the work develops, it may be that
the involvement of ethnic groups can also
bring resources into the green space.
Community groups can apply to funds such
as Awards for All for the costs of taking
part in activities or running activities
such as festivals in a green space.

Further into the future, the use of
the space and the benefits it gives to
ethnic groups will result in ownership.
Look forward to their future contribution
as volunteers, and in time to come, as
members of committees or your board.